Beauty and the Beast: A Comparison
by Denial
Summary: Lex thinks a lot about how fairy tales apply to reality. Warning CLex fic


Lex sat back and looked at the man across from him, reading a book. It was a book of fairy tales that he was reading for an English lit. paper. Clark was writing on the tradition of fairy tales and there place in the human psyche. Lex had been the one to suggest it when Clark had come to him, claiming he didn't have time to do a lot of research for this project. With fairy tales, the classics were well known to most people and the only research would be in the way they were passed on.  
  
Clark had chosen to use the story of 'Beauty and the Beast' to provide his examples so he had felt the need to reread the story. As Lex stood there, he thought about the story. He knew he was feeling melancholy when he was comparing his life to that of a fairy tale.  
  
If this were Beauty and the Beast, he would be the Beast. He even had a castle. And that would make Clark his own personal Beauty. A person who dared to enter the Beast's domain over the protestations of his beloved father. A hero who would try and save Lex through honor and love and friendship.  
  
And that just sounded pathetic.  
  
But like the Beast, Lex didn't want just friendship from his Beauty. He wanted much more than that. Things that had little to do with honor or friendship but a lot to do with love, or at least lust. But, unlike the Beast of the fairy tale, Lex's own evil fairy curse, also know as Lionel Luthor, would not just disappear if he found love. Lex would always be who he was, a bald freak. And where the Beast from the story could have the hope of gaining his Beauty's love, Lex was less lucky.  
  
The parallels between him and Beast were disturbing. Neither one knew how to court their Beauty so they tended to throw their wealth at the problem only to find out Beauty didn't care about such things. And then there was the whole Prince in disgrace thing that Lex didn't want to even get into.  
  
He knew Clark. He was one of the few people who could not be bought by the Luthor fortune or tricked through Luthor charm. He knew the truth behind the lies. He couldn't love something that was so rotten. It was like an angel loving a demon. The chances of it happening were miniscule, and surely forbidden by all of the powers of the universe. At least in Lex's universe it was forbidden. Sometimes he wondered what universe Clark lived in.  
  
Clark shift on the couch and Lex collected himself, realizing he had been just staring at the boy, drink in hand. He was damned lucky that Clark hadn't noticed. Taking a swift sip of his scotch, letting the liquid burning a fiery trail down his throat bring him back to himself, Lex headed to his desk.  
  
Staring at the laptop in front of him, his mind refused to focus. It kept traveling back to the Beauty stretched out in the same room and the ways his life paralleled the stupid story.  
  
Lex bit his lip, as he tried to force his mind to do what he want but instead, a tiny voice was lamenting how the Beast had it easy. He didn't have to deal with Beauty's friends or family, didn't have to do anything except devote himself to his single guest. No mutant menaces or urgent business deals to take time away from that couple.  
  
Lex wouldn't mind devoting all his time to Clark like that. Finding out everything there was to know about him. Not just the secrets that Lex knew the boy had but the little, everyday things like what type of chocolate he liked best or what sports team he rooted for in the playoffs. Simple little things that were what made a person who they were more than the big stuff that most people focused on. The big stuff was obvious, but only someone who really cared learned the little things.  
  
Lex already knew that Clark cared about the little things. He made off handed comments about Lex's preferences in everything from clothing to water. Stupid, unimportant details that Clark remembered that made Lex love him because no one ever remembered them.  
  
Lex glared at the screen in front of him, not seeing it.  
  
The Beast also had another advantage that Lex wished he had. Beauty had been unable to leave the castle. Clark could, and would, leave Lex's castle. And someday, most likely, leave Lex. Probably without realizing that he would be taking Lex's only hope of salvation with him.  
  
Stabbing angrily at the keys, he responded to e-mail.  
  
It was probably a good thing that Lex didn't have the Beast's advantages. In the stupid story, the Beast had to let Beauty go before there could be a happily ever after. Lex wasn't good at letting go and if he ever got Clark, there was no way he would let him go, thus ruining any chance for a happily ever after. Though that wasn't too surprising. Lex and happily ever after had never even met, let alone looked like they may end up together.  
  
Clark stretched out and closed the book.  
  
"Finished?" Lex asked.  
  
"Yea." Clark said quietly.  
  
"So, was it as good as you remember?" Lex asked, interested in the thoughtful look in the other man's eyes.  
  
"I was just thinking that the end is kind of weird." Clark said.  
  
"Weird?"  
  
"Well, Beauty falls in love with the Beast but then the Beast is taken away and she is given someone else. I don't think I'd be happy with the switch."  
  
Lex laughed, "Are you saying you'd prefer the Beast over the Prince?"  
  
Clark nodded, "If I fell in love with the Beast."  
  
"But they are the same person, just different packaging, Clark." Lex said with a smirk, "Unless you happen to be into bestiality?"  
  
"Lex!" Clark yelled, throwing a pillow at him, "That is just wrong."  
  
Lex chuckled as he caught the pillow, "So beside your odd sexual preferences, get anything else out of the story?"  
  
"I'm not...I don't...Lex!" Clark looked at him in exasperation.  
  
"Hey. I'm not judging. Just pointing out I've heard stories about farmers and their livestock." Lex said.  
  
"Ah! Bad images! Bad! What are you trying to do to me?" Clark said, comically waving his arms around his head as if to ward off the images.  
  
Lex chuckled, "Sorry, perhaps I can replace the bad thoughts with better ones."  
  
Clark looked at him skeptically, "Like what?"  
  
Lex stood up and walked to stand in front of Clark pretending to think hard, "How about you on a deserted island, with nothing else around for miles. No responsibilities or worries."  
  
Clark smiled, "That's better. But still not good enough."  
  
"Hmm...oh yes, you need companionship. Let's see...Lana? No, what about Chloe? Or better yet...Bessie!"  
  
"Lex!" Clark grabbed Lex, shoving him onto the couch and grabbing another pillow, "Take it back!"  
  
Lex looked at Clark stand threateningly over him with the pillow and said the only thing one could say in this situation, "Mooo!"  
  
Clark whacked him as he jumped on to the couch to prevent Lex from getting away. Eventually Clark dropped the pillow and started tickling Lex mercilessly while Lex tried to valiantly gasp out animal noises as he laughed helplessly.  
  
Finally, out of breathe, Clark sat perched on Lex's stomach and looked down at Lex. Lex met Clarks eyes and for the first time realized the position they were in. Lex felt his mouth go dry as he took in his trapped position and how much of Clark was pressed up against him. There was something in Clark's eyes that made Lex think that maybe Clark was just aware of it as he was.  
  
Clark leaned down, "If I had to be stuck on an island with only one person, I'd want it to be you."  
  
"Clark?" Lex managed to say.  
  
"If I kissed you, would you turn into someone else?" Clark asked quietly.  
  
Lex swallowed convulsively, trying to find his voice, "Do you want me to change?"  
  
"No." Clark leaned a little further down and kissed Lex.  
  
For a moment the only message coming from Lex's brain was some inarticulate joy filled noise. Then Clark began to pull away and Lex's brain sent out several frantic commands to his limbs. His arms shot out to grab Clark's head and pull him back down into a deeper kiss.  
  
And in a quiet corner of his brain, he realized the true transformation that came from Beauty's kiss wasn't on the outside, but the inside. Because of Clark, Lex was transformed from a hopeless Beast, to a Man.  
  
But it was only a fleeting thought, and quickly buried under less articulate and more demanding thoughts.  
  
The end.  
  
AN: Sorry if this was horrible. I am supposed to be writing another story but this idea hit me so I wrote it rather quickly just to stop the plot bunnies from hopping on my head. 


End file.
